Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
Leofwine_draca
What the hell? Seems to me this movie only ran for an hour! Ah well, at least the experience wasn't too painful in that respect. Well I would say that this is a film aimed at kids except for the fact it opens with a scene of a woman stripping naked and being captured by mutants! Nothing is too weird for a film that comes from Charles Band's Empire Pictures, a studio renowned for making rubbishy movies before it went bust (and was of course replaced by Full Moon instead). Apparently this film is based on the once-popular Dungeons & Dragons game although you wouldn't realise from watching it.Basically, this is a film which exemplifies the '80s: the special effects are plentiful but cheesy and tacky, the monster suits look rubbery, the moronic humour is unwanted, and the acting is generally wooden. Most of this takes place in the dark, to either a) be atmospheric or b) to hide the edges of the sets. I would bet on the latter. The film's hero is played by the unremarkable Jeffrey Byron who doesn't convince for a second, and his character is even worse. To show how dated this film is, he has a talking computer which helps him out via a wrist-pad (!) and special computerised glasses which can withdraw money from a bank machine. It's pretty poor.The action begins almost straight away, with Byron being transported over to a fire-lit netherworld where his girlfriend hangs in chains for the rest of the film. The big bad wizard (Richard Moll from SURVIVOR) tries really had to be scary but his efforts go in vain: instead he just looks ridiculous and rather camp. From then on Byron must battle seven dangers in a bid to rescue the girl. These seven segments are so short that they can't really even be called "segments" as they have no story - they just show Byron battling various enemies. I find it hard to believe that seven directors were brought in to direct each of these few minute sequences! My favourite segment is the "Stone Canyon Giant" one in which Byron finds himself up against a huge statue which suddenly comes to life to kill him. Yep, it rips off JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS again but here they fight with lasers. Pretty bad but at least the stop-motion animation is cool, even if only on screen for a couple of moments. The second segment is entitled "Demons of the Dead" and as you would guess, it's a horror-themed one. Byron here fights a hideous gargoyle creature (pretty good effect from John Carl Buechler, who also directed) and some disappearing zombies. After a brief interlude with some animated dragons which seem to have come from a Disney film (!), there's a plot less heavy metal scene there just for the hell of it (directed by Charles Band, go figure). After a fight in an "Ice Gallery" where Byron and his character's girlfriend fight reanimated ice statues of historical killers (an idea later echoed in WAXWORK), the longest segment arrives in the form of "Slasher". I probably liked this one the best, as it actually has partly-developed characters in it and some okay action. It's still below average though.Another interlude shows a demon head in a flame special effect - cool stuff. Then the film stoops even lower as Byron lobs rocks at a demon in a cave (the "Cave Beast" apparently) and things are rounded off with an inevitable MAD MAX 2 rip-off scene involve chasing dune buggies. The only interest of these scene is that cult dwarf actor Felix Silla (from BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY) appears in it for a minute. There's not really much else to say about this film, only that I wish it had continued in the same vein as the opening.
JTurner82
A computer geek and his girlfriend get zapped into a dark underworld. She gets chained up by this evil sorcerer guy who compels the nerd to face seven different challenges in order to procure her freedom. The "challenges," each of which are directed by a different person, are little more than just scanty encounters with monsters, giants, bands(!), and explosives, each setting in caves, concert halls, or pyramids. Predictably, the nerd conquers all of them by way of his cheesy zapper watch. At the end of it, the nerd fights the sorcerer, and the victor of it all shouldn't be so surprising. That sums up THE DUNGEONMASTER, a truly heinous turkey with everything which defines a major stinker: hideous acting and even worse dialogue, zero direction, cheap sets, and lame plotting. The best part is that it's short, at 79 minutes long. Even as a generally tolerant fan of movies some would find unwatchable, THE DUNGEONMASTER proved to be not only a waste, but a totally uninteresting and immanently forgettable one. MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 fans, beware: of all films, this has to be the absolute worst. If you dare to sit through this movie (and I challenge you to), expect to be disgusted through every minute. It's really that awful.
rgibson103
2.5 out of 10? Really? It's not that bad for what I'd like to call - along with ELIMINATORS - a proto-video game movie. Say you're working at your standard schlock factory - i.e. Empire Pictures - and you and six of your other director friends do a semi-anthology piece for fun together. You end up with this ....Think DRAGON'S LAIR with a Clark Kentish nerd in Subzero's ninja get-up from MORTAL KOMBAT, only instead of a dragon there's Bull Shannon from NIGHT COURT as the villain. When you're done laughing, crack open your beer. Now here's the punchline: you can watch it with your kids. No boobs, no blood. When you're done doing a spit take, wipe your mouth, and give it a shot.Vintage essence of 1980s in a bottle, stop-motion courtesy of Dave Allen - of LASERBLAST infamy, and a Charles Band soundtrack.~Ray
d_teasdale
I have seen this movie twice, (I must be a masochist), the second time to give it another chance that it did not deserve. This is the worst movie I have ever seen. Nothing could have saved it … well maybe a good fire in the editing room.There is nothing about this movie that redeems it, the cinematography is poor, there script must have been written by a 3rd grader and the direction … well there is none. I feel sorry for the actors that appeared in this it is a low point in there collective careers. The only reason this is not in the bottom 100 is people have not seen it.Today "You Got Served (2004)" is in the lowest position an this is MUCH worse.
